Oh. My. God. I love rhubarb pie. Where'd you find the rhubarb? I have five huge plants in my garden (well, they'll pop in the Spring). Congrats on making the pie, hope you ate it warm with vanilla ice cream. Peace, Linda

Frozen? They make frozen rhubarb? I'm on it. Thanks Mitmoi. And where in NC? My mom, who loves all things rhubarb, especially rhubarb sauce (the filling cooked in a saucepan and eaten with ice cream) lives outside of Raleigh. My mom is responsible for my rhubarb lust.

The Undomestic Goddess approves! Actually, I made my friend bake me one from scratch. She even picked fresh rhubarb from her GARDEN! Sheesh: http://www.undomesticgoddess.com/2009/07/grandmas-strawberry-rhubarb-pie.html

Congrats! In spite of no one other than Mother liking rhubarb, I have a sister who regularly wins prizes for hers (her hubs is also fond of it). And the best pie crust starts with Michael's rules, but also includes vinegar and egg. And don't play with too much. Not only will the crust be tough, but you'll go blind.

I recently made soup from scratch! The recipe did call for condensed tomato soup, so it felt like cheating. But it was delicious, so I think it's ok. I'll share. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Catherines-Spicy-Chicken-Soup/Detail.aspx

This made me laugh! I cook everything from scratch, but had never made pie. The crust seemed intimidating. I recently tried it and it worked great, but my favourite thing is to make rough galette instead. All the taste of pie, but it's not supposed to look gorgeous. Perfect for me. Here's a great link for one: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Dessert/Eggs-Dairy/recipe.html?dishid=8365

And you have to eat about 9 lbs of leaves to get sick. The deer eat them if you're not fast enough. What I mean is, they're their last resort in summer. All summer they'll leave them alone, but then one day, they'll say, "Man, I'm tired of all this dried up X%%#%." and eat all your lush rhubarb.89

I can tell the extent of my success by how many dishes I leave for Lydia. And if I burn myself.

Wish I was joking about burning myself, but I'm pretty good at cooking from scratch. I generally burn myself. Made homemade biscuits and gravy Sunday morning, and burned my arm.

All of mama's boys are married off and my brothers are pretty good at the making from scratch thing. The baby bro (who is...23, I think) makes a phenomenal cheesecake. Not sure if he burns himself, though.